Many books from symposia describe the current status in well established fields of research, where much is known and where the loose ends are only details in the picture. The topic dealt with here does not fall into this pattern. The study of time as a parameter in its own right is difficult, and the loose ends tend to do minate the present picture. Although the book does provide the reader with an overview of the field, its main value is probably to act as a source of "food for thought" for those interested in the function of sense organs and nervous systems as substrates for behaviour. The...

Cells do not normally live as single entities but are grouped together in specific functional and structural configurations in various tissues. Intra cellular mechanisms maintain cellular viability and provide the means necessary for their specific cellular functions. The interaction between cells is maintained by mechanisms involving extracellular signalling. Such extracellular mechanisms may include special properties of the cell surface which involve immediate cell contact, but may also represent mechanisms which act at a distance and are mediated via special secretions and/or re ceptors....

The past two decades may well become known as the golden era of neurobiology. This field, that in the first half of this century seemed far too complex to be investigated with the low resolution techniques available to the investigators, suddenly blossomed in the second half of the century into one of the most promising areas of biology, thanks to discoveries which took place practically simultaneously in most areas of neurobiological research. Here we mention only some of the most important: the discovery of the large number of neurotransmitters from monoamines to peptides, the...

It must have been some feeling of frustration invoked by the genus loci of big conferences which brought Don Dougall, Mike Fowler, and me over a cup of coffee to think of organizing a small meeting on cell culture metabol ism. The basic aim was to bring people working on "primary metabolism" and those who work on "secondary metabolism" to interact with each other, hopefully to induce some new approaches to utilize the cell culture technique more efficiently in basic research and in its practical application. The out come of this was the small symposium at SchloE Rauischholzhausen near GieEen...

In 1822, E. Metchnikoff discovered phagocytosis while he was studying starfish larvae. The following year, while carrying out experiments on Daphnia (Crustacea), the same author demonstrated the scale of the phe- nomen in the defence of the organism. Finally, between 1891 and 1910, L. Cuenot was the first to reveal lymphoid organs, in crustaceans and in- sects; some of these organs playa role in both phagocytosis and inhaema- topoieses. With rare exceptions, research into defence reactions in invertebrates was meagre in quantity and sometimes meagre in quality from then until the mid-1960's....

Man as a biological species and as a member of the community of organisms that has evolved over the billions ofyears on this planet has to face competition for his resources in the same way as any other species. In the course of evolution organisms have developed a fascinating variety of weapons, techniques and strategies in this competitive scramble for food and other essential resources and in se1f-defense against parasitism and predation. Among these, the biosynthesis of toxic molecules and their appropriate delivery in interspecific encounters has proved to be one of the most successful...

During the past decade we have witnessed not only an increase in knowledge of the "traditional" biophysical problems, but also an understanding of the molecular basis of various biological phenomena. The principles and methods of biophysics now provide an underpin ning of all of the basic biosciences and are the rational language for discussion between scientists of different disciplines. The International School on Biophysics Supramolecular Structure and Function held in Dubrovnik in September 1984 had as its goal to provide comprehensive discussions on a large number of subjects both for...

The 12th International Conference on Plant Growth Substances was held from 26th to 31st August 1985 in Heidelberg, F. R. G., under the auspices of the IPGSA (International Plant Growth Sub stances Association) and the University of Heidelberg in its 599th year. As many as 750 participants from 40 countries all over the world attended the conference, including guests and staff members of the local organizers. Fine days provided an excellent background for a fruitful and pleasant meeting and all the activities accompanying the scientific programme. During the conference all current aspects...

This book brings together various contributions aimed at the elucida tion of the structural and functional organization of the bacterial nucleoid. Most of these papers, spanning the fields of physical chemistry through biochemistry to genetics, were presented at the session on bac terial chromatin during the Symposium "Selected topics on chromatin structure and function" held at the University of Camerino, Italy, at the end of May 1985. Times when the bacterial DNA was regarded as "naked" or, at most, complexed with polyamines, and when the absence of histones and organized chromatin was...

Peroxisomes (microbodies) have a long evolutionary lifespan, but in cell biology they are still young. It is gratifying to see that most recent advances in our knowledge of peroxisomes come from quite different disciplines, ranging from molecular biology and cell biology to clinical research. The identification in terms of cDNA sequences of enzymes, the localization in terms of immuno-electron microscopy, and the cell biological aspects of the organelle biogenesis have seen substantial progress very recently. Likewise, the phenomenon of peroxisome proliferation induced by a number of drugs,...